Saturday, August 8, 2009

DIY: Paper Wallet

That's right, a paper wallet. Wallets can be made out of just about anything. I've seen wallets made of duct tape, cassette tapes, and even dollar bills themselves. For this one though you'll only need the following items:

1 sheet of Paper (color and weight according to personal preference)
1 Pair of Scissors

To start the alchemical task of turning an ordinary piece of paper into a place to store your moneys, fold the piece of paper in half length ways (folds are outlined in blue marker).


Now fold it inward again so that it's divided into fourths.


Fold the outer sections to the middle and repeat so that you have a single strip. Fold this in half (again lengthways) like so.


Now comes the only tricky part. In the picture below you will see sections marked out in blue marker. You will need to cut these out with the scissors. The cuts are as follows: a diamond shape from the second section from the bottom, for your driver's license or credit cards (got to have that plastic), and corner cuts on the second and last sections. I like to make the corner cuts 1cm into the page and .5cm along the edge.


Almost done. Take the sections that you didn't cut the corners and fold the edges in. Nothing too complicated.


Two more steps. Fold the sections back into the single strip same as you did earlier.


Finally take the tabs where you cut the corners and fold into the opposing side's slot. 1 into A and 2 into B according to the picture below. Rinse and repeat on the other side.


Believe it or not you are done. I made my first one about a week ago and I've been pretty impressed by how well it's held together. One thing you can do to customize it is to cut out a section so your drivers license is visible when open. Also I've attached a PDF to make the instructions a little more clear.